SUMMER NEWS:   9th August, 2010:

Not that long ago we were complaining about too much rain and cold and now we are experiencing a long drought!   The rain always seems to miss us here, while just up or down the coast, they have a deluge!  I do hope it will be our turn soon for the rain clouds to look kindly on us as the garden is looking very sad and we are buying 2 lorry loads of water a week just to keep things alive.    We don't share our precious water with the irises which are surviving amazingly well.   The roses have got their roots down into the clay and seem reasonably happy and the David Austin roses are having a second or third flush of flowers, not bad for August!  We shall be extending our rose area and planting more as, apart from the hassle of pruning,  they are easy and great survivors.

Our Spring garden opening seems a long time ago now, but we did appreciate the visitor numbers and support and enthusiasm from so many people.  Thank you for your kind words which we really appreciate, we try not to get big-headed, but it does help to make all our hard work worthwhile!   We are enjoying a quiet summer (with a new puppy) and will start again in September, digging and splitting the irises and tidying the garden.   We made a lot of crosses on the irises this spring and have just harvested the seed pods, these will take another 2 years to reach flowering.   One of the surprises was the Pacific Coast iris hybrids, grown from seed.  These were just beautiful and we can't wait to have enough to plant throughout the garden.

Christine has gone mad (again) and ordered 10,000 tulips and another 10,000 mixed spring bulbs such as alliums, ixias, reticulatas, gladiolus and narcissus which should make a fantastic spring display.   She is also planting 100's of South African seeds ot trees and shrubs to trial here and has a little nursery of seedlings coming on.  Watch this space!

Enjoy the summer and hope for rain!